Tripod grip is a term used to identify and refer to the use of the thumb of a human hand, and the two fingers adjacent to the thumb, to hold a pencil, pen or other slender, usually cylindrical, writing implement in use of the implement. The tripod grip is generally regarded as the preferred way to hold such a writing implement for effective use of the implement.
Small children with disabilities, as well as other persons with certain disabilities, have difficulty coordinating the use of the thumb and adjacent forefinger and middle finger to grasp and manipulate pencils, pens, conventional crayons and the like. Such persons, notably children, are prone to hold such implements in other ways which make it difficult for them to control movement of the implement to produce desired effects, such as legible writing or the creation of a mark at a desired place on a paper, e.g. Physical therapists increasingly believe that children who have problems with finger coordination and manual dexterity can best overcome such problems by picking up articles which are sufficiently small that fingertips must be used, as contrasted from the whole hand including the palm. The use of large diameter crayons by such children does not help in enabling them to develop a tripod grip.
Small children, notably children in the age range from about four years old to about eight years old, usually have a natural interest in using pencils, pens and crayons to express themselves through the creation of markings or images on paper and the like. The availability of an article which can be used by small children as a form of crayon, and which is so sized and shaped to require it to be held (when used) by fingertips in different functional orientations comfortable to a user, has been found to be effective in enabling children to develop finger coordination and manual dexterity. The children perceive such articles as toys or novelties rather than as conventional writing implements, and so they use them by their own choices in preference to conventional writing implements. As a result, they acquire the ability to hold conventional implements in a tripod grip.
Products according to this invention are to be contrasted and distinguished from devices which serve as holders for pens and pencils and which are shaped to adapt them to be held in defined ways in or by a human hand. Products according to this invention also are to be contrasted and distinguished from regularly shaped specialty crayons, such as those of equilateral tetrahedronal configuration, which can be grasped in limited ways.